Of Mr. Abernethy's independence and strict veneration of what
is right, we have many examples. Among others, the following is
characteristic:--A certain noble personage, now enjoying a situation
of great responsibility in the Sister Kingdom, had been waiting for
a long time in the surgeon's anteroom, when, seeing those who had
arrived before him, successively called in, he became somewhat
impatient, and sent his card in. No notice was taken of the hint; he
sent another card--another--another--and another; still no answer.
At length he gained admission in his turn; and, full of nobility
and choler, he asked, rather aristocratically, why he had been kept
waiting so long?--"Wh--ew!" responded the professor; "because you
didn't come sooner, to be sure. And now, if your lordship will sit
down, I will hear what you have to say."
One thing Mr. Abernethy cannot abide, that is, any interruption to his
discourse. This it is, in fact, which so often irritates him, so often
causes him to snarl.--"People come here," he has often said to us,
"to consult me, and they will torture me with their long and foolish
fiddle-de-dee stories; so we quarrel, and then they blackguard me all
about this large town; but I can't help that."
That Abernethy is odd all the world knows, but his oddity is far more
amusing than repulsive, far more playful than bearish. Yates's picture
of him last year was not bad; neither was it good--it wanted the
raciness of the original. Let the reader imagine a smug, elderly,
sleek, and venerable-looking man, approaching seventy years of age,
rather (as novel-writers say) below than above the middle height,
somewhat inclined to corpulency, and upright in his carriage withal;
with his hair most primly powdered, and nicely curled round his brow
and temples: let them imagine such a person habited in sober black,
with his feet thrust carelessly into a pair of unlaced half-boots,
and his hands into the pockets of his "peculiars," and they have the
"glorious John" of the profession before their eyes. The following
colloquy, which occurred not many days since, between him and a friend
of ours, is so characteristic of the professor, that we cannot resist
its insertion:--
Having entered the room, our friend "opened the proceedings." "I wish
you to ascertain what is the matter with my eye, sir. It is very
painful, and I am afraid there is some great mischief going
on."--"Which I can't see," said Abernethy, placing the patient before
the window, and looking closely at the eye.--"But--" interposed
our friend.--"Which I can't see," again said, or rather sung the
professor. "Perhaps not, sir, but--"--"Now don't bother!" ejaculated
the other; "but sit down, and I'll tell you all about it." Our friend
sat down accordingly, while Abernethy, standing with his back against
the table, thus began: "I take it for granted that, in consulting me,
you wish to know what I should do for myself, were I in a predicament
similar to yourself. Now, I have no reason to suppose that you are
in any particular predicament; and the terrible mischief which you
apprehend, depends, I take it, altogether upon the stomach. Mind,--at
present I have no reason to believe that there is any thing else
the matter with you." (Here my friend was about to disclose sundry
dreadful maladies with which he believed himself afflicted, but he was
interrupted with "Diddle-dum, diddle-dum, diddle-dum dee!" uttered in
the same smooth tone as the previous part of the address--and he was
silent.)--"Now, your stomach being out of order, it is my duty to
explain to you how to put it to rights again; and, in my whimsical
way, I shall give you an illustration of my position; for I like to
tell people something that they will remember. The kitchen, that is,
your stomach, being out of order, the garret (pointing to the head)
cannot be right, and egad! every room in the house becomes affected.
Repair the injury in the kitchen,--remedy the evil there,--(_now don't
bother_,) and all will be right. This you must do by diet. If you put
improper food into your stomach, by Gad you play the very devil with
it, and with the whole machine besides. Vegetable matter ferments, and
becomes gaseous; while animal substances are changed into a putrid,
abominable, and acrid stimulus. (_Don't bother again!_) You are going
to ask, 'What has all this to do with my eye?' I will tell you.
Anatomy teaches us, that the skin is a continuation of the membrane
which lines the stomach; and your own observation will inform you,
that the delicate linings of the mouth, throat, nose, and eyes, are
nothing more. Now some people acquire preposterous noses, others
blotches on the face and different parts of the body, others
inflammation of the eyes--all arising from irritation of the stomach.
People laugh at me for talking so much about the stomach. I sometimes
tell this story to forty different people of a morning, and some won't
listen to me; so we quarrel, and they go and abuse me all over the
town. I can't help it--they came to me for my advice, and I give it
them, if they will take it. I can't do any more. Well, sir, as to the
question of diet. I must refer you to my book. (Here the professor
smiled, and continued smiling as he proceeded.) There are only about a
dozen pages--and you will find, beginning at page 73, all that it
is necessary for you to know. I am christened 'Doctor My-Book,' and
satirized under that name all over England; but who would sit and
listen to a long lecture of twelve pages, or remember one-half of it
when it was done? So I have reduced my directions into writing, and
there they are for any body to follow, if they please.
"Having settled the question of diet, we now come to medicine. It is,
or ought to be, the province of a medical man to soothe and assist
Nature, not to force her. Now, the only medicine I should advise you
to take, is a dose of a slight aperient medicine every morning the
first thing. I won't stipulate for the dose, as that must be regulated
by circumstances, but you must take some; for without it, by Gad; your
stomach will never be right. People go to Harrowgate, and Buxton, and
Bath, and the devil knows where, to drink the waters, and they return
full of admiration at their surpassing efficacy. Now these waters
contain next to nothing of purgative medicine; but they are taken
readily, regularly, and in such quantities, as to produce the desired
effect. You must persevere in this plan, sir, until you experience
relief, which you certainly will do. I am often asked--'Well, but
Mr. Abernethy, why don't you practise what you preach?' I answer, by
reminding the inquirer of the parson and the signpost: both point
the way, but neither follow its course."--And thus ended a
colloquy, wherein is mingled much good sense, useful advice, and
whimsicality.--_New Monthly Magazine_.
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